Revival of ethos

When I was growing up in Peshawar I saw Pakistan as a peaceful and honest nation with smiling faces and a culture which thrived upon our values. Tourism was booming and people would visit Pakistan from all over the world. We all took upon the values of our forefathers. However, once I entered my professional life I noticed that these values diminished due to bad leadership and a nation that was once so honest and peaceful had turned into a materialistic mess. Industrial decay was on its peak and with every passing second Pakistan was heading in the wrong direction. Finally, after all these years I see a ray of hope via Imran Khan and for steering us towards the right direction; a stepping stone to greatness.

Giving a holistic over-view would like to begin with the meticulous measure taken to reduce and shrink the current account deficit by 30% along with catering to public debt servicing to $9.886 billion. One of the most notable and cherished Chief Investment officers of Yale University Endowment, David Swensen puts everything beautifully in perspective, aligned with the value of Imran Khan-led government, “Establishing and maintaining an unconventional (approach) requires frequently appearing downright imprudent in the eyes of conventional wisdom” hence government took bold steps to revive industry and hence our perseverance bore fruit we decreased the overall trade deficit by 14%; hence balance of payments and default threat also averted. We are all cogs in a machine every individual in PTI government took upon themselves to cut expenditure an initiative driven by the PM himself hence resulting in 30% savings, this mechanism set a crucial wave in accountability and crackdown on money laundering as to make individual responsible and help them look at the bigger picture that is Pakistan.

PM Imran Khan’s vision was always to give more power to department’s so that they can make quick bold and autonomous decisions reducing procrastination across the board and PTI has led in that strata; Pakistan Postal Services has taken the turn for the best reforming it into a profit making organisation and that too with the help of modern innovative tools such as Express mail service and introducing remittance based application more easy and accessible to use with zero consignment tax hence positive step taken control and eradicate the illegal means of hawala and hundi. Similarly, PTV, PIA and NHA all have been put on the road to success, reforming the said into profit making departments. For example NHA has successfully raised Rs43 billion.

With the advent of PTI government we stressed and laid most emphasis on, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?” (Martin Luther King Jr), having this question on mind we wanted to bring all people under same umbrella of growth, equal opportunity and sustainability; so with the most harmonious way we structured the merger of Fata and KPK allotting a herculean development budget of Rs162 billion; but it was across the board effort. Huge efforts and measures take to alleviate poverty and have equitable distribution of resources hence Ehsas programme initiated by PM so that wealth and basic necessities can reach the poorest of the poor. Following, the same huge effort by PM Imran Khan-led government, “Everyone should have a roof on their head” hence Panah Gah’s were made on urgent basis to facilitate the poor. With long term prosperity of the common man in mind, Health Card initiate also taken by government in which insurance to be given to 80 million people in KPK, Balochistan, Sindh & Punjab on average Rs720,000 per family per year. PM Imran Khan also structured the Road to Makkah initiative helping the Haj pilgrims and facilitating them in Pakistan and outside.

PTI government had been dealt a tough hand, but with unwavering faith we continue to stride down the right path making our every next stride even more stronger; almost a resounding voice saying, “Humbly march on.”

Following the same voice and being a group of iconoclasts we made a huge breakthrough for Naya Pakistan Housing Programme where Rs5 billion has been allocated for a million houses for under-privileged, striding on PTI successfully inaugurated the Mohmand Dam and started plantation of 10 billion trees nations wide a subset of the nationwide cleanliness drive that PTI has been pursuing side by side. PM Imran Khan-led government made huge strides for improving our relationships with Afghanistan which had deteriorated exponentially previously and similarly revitalised relationships with UAE, Qatar, China, Turkey and Malaysia reaping huge benefit for Pakistan.

Imran Khan has raised the bar for leadership level and has brought Pakistan back from the dark into the light. We as a nation have become proud of our leader rather than hiding our faces when our leaders’ names are taken internationally. The public has suffered for numerous years due to bad leadership but Imran Khan has brought back morality and the fundamentals on which Pakistan was founded. I will quote the words of one of the founding fathers of Pakistan, Allama Iqbal, “you need to create politics and culture of your own” and finally Pakistan has a leader that is doing this by providing social welfare and people are helping one another. This is a difficult track but we are surely on the right way. Words will not be enough to put how far PM Imran Khan-led government have come in such a short period, so would like to conclude with the scintillating words of Robert Frost,

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

The writer is Special Assistant to the Prime Minister.